MacTech Blog

According to 3Cinteractive (www.3C.com), video is now a mobile-first experience and will account for 77% of all US mobile data traffic by 2020, up from 61% in 2015.

With this focus on video for user-generated content creation, 3Cinteractive is seeing the big players putting emphasis on the quality and functionality surrounding mobile phone cameras, and even introducing their own alternatives for better quality video. What do brands, retailers and marketers now need to know about their prospects of utilizing video for mobile campaigns?

In its September release event, Apple unveiled updated specs of the iPhone 7 camera, including dual camera functionality that foreshadows upcoming AR/VR plans in the future.

Last month, Snapchat released its first hardware product, Spectacles, which are glasses designed to capture short video clips by clicking the button on the device. Instead of being tied to the user’s...

Widespread adoption of cognitive systems and artificial intelligence (AI) across a broad range of industries will drive worldwide revenues from nearly $8.0 billion in 2016 to more than $47 billion in 2020. According to a new report from International Data Corporation (www.idc.com), the market for cognitive/AI solutions will experience a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 55.1% over the 2016-2020 forecast period.

"Software developers and end user organizations have already begun the process of embedding and deploying cognitive/artificial intelligence into almost every kind of enterprise application or process," said David Schubmehl, research director, C ognitive Systems and Content Analytics at IDC. "Recent announcements by several large technology vendors and the booming venture capital market for AI startups illustrate the need for organizations to be planning and undertaking strategies that incorporate these wide-...

A new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) forecasts the global streaming media device market — which includes the Apple TV — to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 17.45% during the period 2016-2020. The market is currently in its nascent stage but is witnessing unprecedented growth, according to the research group.

In 2015, Asia-Pacific (APAC) had the highest growth rate in the market. Europe, the Middle East, and Africa (EMEA) and the Americas are quite matured markets. According to Research and Markets, one of the key drivers for market growth will be easy connectivity with electronic devices. A major factor driving the sales of streaming devices is the ease with which media content can be streamed and shared between various streaming devices.

With the help of a home network, a streaming device can connect with various devices. The content can...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the popularity of Pokémon GO is inspiring app developers to incorporate AR [augmented reality] technologies into their applications.

The research group forecasts that the AR market will rise to 2.3 billion apps by 2021, representing a 380% increase from an estimated 482 million in 2016. The launch of the AR game sparked a worldwide phenomenon that has created a greater interest in the technology, leaving developers ‘champing at the bit’ to recreate its global success.

According to Juniper Research, AR content has now evolved past its ‘gimmicky’ reputation, and consumer attitudes have become more positive towards the technology. The report found that despite smartphones already being capable of this level of AR, the success of applications were down to desirable content, such as Pokémon GO and Snapchat.

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the number of coupons issued via mobile and online channels will grow by more than 60% over the next five years, increasing from 224 billion in 2016 to 362 billion in 2021.

Juniper’s latest research found that the growth in digital coupon volumes can in large part be attributed to a greater retailer emphasis on the provision of highly targeted, personalized offers to consumers. According to the research group, brands will increasingly deploy bots, artificial intelligence applications which can interact with consumers via social media and messaging applications such as Facebook Messenger.

The research cited Domino’s Pizza and Iceland Air as companies which have already utilized this strategy. Meanwhile, mass adoption of social media has spawned a number of dedicated coupon aggregators operating within that space,...

Zevrix Solutions has announced BatchOutput DOC 2.4.7, a compatibility update to its output automation solution for Microsoft Word on macOS.

BatchOutput automates printing and exporting of multiple documents to PDF, and allows to carry out professional PDF production directly from Word bringing PDF creation options right to the user's fingertips. The new version makes BatchOutput DOC compatible with the recently released macOS 10.12 Sierra.

BatchOutput DOC can be purchased for US $39.95 from the Zevrix Solutions website (www.zevrix.com), as well as from authorized resellers and the Mac App Store. A demo is available for download. The update is free for users of version 2 and $20 from version 1. BatchOutput DOC requires Mac OS X 10.6-10.12 and Microsoft Word 2008, 2011 or 2016.

The dangers of public Wi-Fi are already well known, but the security issues of in-flight Internet connection are still somewhat obscure. In 2015, there were already 52 airlines worldwide offering in-flight Internet, and the prevalence of U.S. in-flight Wi-Fi alone has grown 1,600-fold since 2013.

Security is an issue with in-flight Internet - dominated by Gogo provider, while its two main competitors, ViaSat and GEE, use satellites exclusively for airlines such as JetBlue and Southwest. First, there's no password protection on the Wi-Fi connection, so anyone can intercept all data that¹s being transmitted on the wireless network.

Thus, while it¹s great to go online while you are in the sky, connecting to Gogo or other provider might mean you are giving your private data away to cybercriminals. Airplanes are unique hacking grounds ­ more dangerous than airports or coffee shops, as they cram passengers in one small space for hours. This gives plenty of...

A growing number of students are doing their schoolwork on Chromebooks, and an increasing number of teachers are managing their work with free tools from Google, according to “K-12 Classroom Technology Survey Report 2016,” a new report from Simba Information (www.simbainformation.com).

Chromebooks, which represented less than 2% of education market device sales a few years ago, now are found in more than one-quarter of classrooms. Chromebooks follow the legacy classroom desktop computer as the available device having the biggest impact on student achievement. Chromebooks follow iPads as the device teachers would most like to add for student use.

"The percentage of teachers using Google Classroom, a free platform for managing assignments and communicating with students, was more than three times that of any other learning management system when Simba Information and MCH Strategic Data...

While it may be an election year often signaling uncertainty when it comes to shopping and spending, a new survey conducted by Kelton Global on behalf of savings destination RetailMeNot (www.retailmenot.com) reports that 61% of shoppers plan to spend more this holiday season than last. In fact, nearly one in three shoppers plan to spend at least $200 more.

Despite the increase in spending, consumers will be taking advantage of deals and offers by seeking out savings prior to shopping either in-store or online, especially on the bigger ticket items like electronics that are on many wish lists. Seven out of ten consumers look for deals on holiday gifts year round, but 40% still feel they will find the best discounts on Black Friday.

Searching for deals year round is certainly a successful strategy, but shoppers should reconsider making all purchases at one time, as category deals ebb and flow between...

LTE smartphones led to a bump in sales of RF power amplifiers in 2015 and the first half of 2016, according to Strategy Analytics (www.strategyanalytics.com) Over the next five years, highly integrated multiband PA modules that include switch and filter content similar to the PAs used today in the flagship Apple iPhone 7 and Samsung Galaxy S7 will ship in increasing numbers into lower-tier smartphones.

According to Christopher Taylor, author of the report and director, RF & Wireless Components, Strategy Analytics: ”The need for smartphones with more LTE bands has led to multiband PAs that contain more RF filters and switches, capturing more front-end phone content for the suppliers, contributing to a growth of the PA market that will continue at least until 2020 and 5G."

The number of developers involved with development of mobile apps reached 12 million in 2016, according to Evans Data Corp’s (www.evansdata.com) “Global Development Population and Demographics Study.”

It also found that the number of developers writing for mobile devices has increased by more than five times since Evans began measuring developer participation in mobile development in 2006, when just slightly less than two million developers were targeting mobile. At 12 million, the population of developers targeting mobile is more than half of the total worldwide population of 21 million developers.
The study, which is now in its 20th edition, estimates not only current software developer populations across four major regions and 40 different countries, but also overlays global primary research onto the population numbers to show numbers of developers forecast to adopt technologies now and in the future....

Worldwide shipments of 3D printers will reach 455,772 units in 2016, more than doubling the 219,168 units shipped in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc.'s latest forecast. Despite slowing growth rates after the market's initial growth spurt, the increase in 3D printer shipments over the next four years will see the number of units shipped in 2020 total more than 6.7 million.

"Once a niche market, 3D printing has continued its rapid transformation into a broad-based mainstream technology embraced by consumers and enterprises around the world," said Pete Basiliere, research vice president at Gartner (www.gartner.com). "The evolution of hardware and software along with an ever-expanding collection of usable materials has driven growth in both the consumer and enterprise 3D printing markets.”

As technology improves and as prices fall, professional service robots are increasingly doing jobs formerly handled by human workers. Revenue from professional service robots reached $2.6 billion, with around 20,000 units shipped in 2015, according to a new report from IHS Markit (www.ihsmarkit.com),which specializes in critical information, analytics and solutions.

The emerging market for professional service robots is forecast to increase very quickly, with a unit-shipment compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 46%, from 2015 to 2020, the report says. After 2020, the global market for professional service robot markets will grow even faster, with more robots moving from prototype to commercialization in various applications.

“The various demands on the professional service applications are multi-billion dollar opportunity for the professional service robot markets,” said Wilmer Zhou, senior analyst,...

New findings from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) claim that merchant integration of technologies such as bots and natural language interfaces will lead to remote goods purchases by mobile totaling $2.1 trillion by 2021. This represents a 100% increase from this year’s projection for spend on physical and digital goods.

The research found that rising smartphone use in digital retail was the underlying cause for stakeholder development in Bots, natural language processing, and disruption at the payment gateway. The new study found that shoppers would be driven away from merchants where keyword search and menu-driven systems were in place.

It suggested that where merchants deployed conversational interfaces, such as bots and natural language search, they would be able to far better understand the consumer’s intent. The North Face, for example, has developed an intelligent digital...

The first Worldwide Semiannual Security Spending Guide from International Data Corporation (IDC) forecasts worldwide revenues for security-related hardware, software, and services will grow from $73.7 billion in 2016 to $101.6 billion in 2020.

This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 8.3%, more than twice the rate of overall IT spending growth, over the five-year forecast period. The new spending guide expands on IDC's previous security forecasts by offering greater detail on spending by geography, industry, and technology.

"Today's security climate is such that enterprises fear becoming victims of the next major cyberattack or cyber extortion," said Sean Pike, program vice president, Security Products, IDC (www.idc.com). "As a result, security has become heavily scrutinized by boards of directors demanding that security budgets are used wisely and solutions operate at peak efficiency.”

The number of devices enabled with wireless charging will exceed 200 million units a year for the first time in 2016, according to the latest IHS Markit (www.ihs.com) forecast. Driven by shipments in mobile phones and wearables, this represents a 40% increase over 2015 levels as more consumers experience wireless charging for the first time, according to the research group.

Earlier this year, the IHS Markit consumer survey showed that one in four people has now used wireless charging and more than 98% of those would choose the feature again on their next phone. Both consumer demand for the feature and the volume of enabled devices are growing each year.

However, the market will still fall short of original expectations that it could have reached 250 million receivers shipped this year. A combination of reasons drove this, in particular the exclusion of wireless charging on flagship mobile phones (such as the...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that gross wagers from VR (Virtual Reality) gambling will grow from just over $58.5 million this year, to just under $520 million by 2021, representing an increase of 800%.

Juniper’s latest research found that VR gambling deployments over the next five years will be concentrated in the casino space, which will potentially offer immersive, real-world VR locations. However, the research group cautioned that the high cost of VR devices would inhibit the extent of user adoption, with the addressable base in the short and medium term largely limited to early adopters.

Nevertheless, research author Lauren Foye argued that the initial user base would primarily comprise of smartphone VR players, alongside users of top-end personal computers seeking the highest fidelity experience. According to Foye, “These will be coupled with a niche...

There are many ways to ensure your safety and prevent becoming an unwitting victim of cybercrime that could cost you thousands of dollars, according to security experts and the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP).

Using a weak password while on a free Wi-Fi network can make your device more susceptible to cyber theft. You can strengthen your password by including a variety of symbols, letters and numbers. Try a minimum length of eight characters and use a combination of upper and lower case letters and at least one number. You should also commit your passwords to memory and don't store them on your computer or mobile devices.

Wi-Fi connections present risks at home and on the road. Wi-Fi hotspots are common targets for identity thieves as they are often unsecure and accessible to anyone. Unless you are using a secure web page, you should never send or receive private information when using public Wi-Fi. Avoid conducting financial or corporate transactions on these...

Aggressive promotional activity from smartphone vendors and the launch of premium smartphone VR solutions, including Google’s Daydream View, will help drive the installed base of VR headsets from 4 million in 2015 to 81 million in 2020, according to IHS Market (www.ihs.com). That same year, consumer spending on VR headsets will reach $7.9 billion and spending on VR entertainment will hit $3.3 billion, adds the research group.

“While the VR headset installed base will escalate significantly to 81 million by 2020, we predict that expensive, higher-end headsets will dominate content monetisation,” said Piers Harding-Rolls, director of games analysis at IHS Technology. “There will be a polarization of the VR market between lower volume premium VR headsets, which will have strong paid content conversion rates, and higher-volume cheaper smartphone VR headsets, which will monetise content at a lower rate.”

At a pivotal time for the Internet of Things, Low Power Wide Area Network (LPWAN) technologies are blindsiding existing wireless sensor network technologies with multi-kilometer network ranges, multi-year battery lifetimes and cloud-integrated network stacks, according to a recently published report by global IoT research firm ON World (www.onworld.com).

"After a decade of technology advances such as low power wireless radios, MEMS and cloud platforms, LPWANs represent a new gold rush for Internet of Things investors and developers," says Mareca Hatler, ON World's research director. "The simplicity and accessibility of LPWANs is drawing new entrants and innovative IoT services that will contribute billions of dollars to the global economy.”

ON World's interviews and surveys with 150+ IoT market leaders found that 1-in- 3 are planning or currently offer LPWAN products and services with the majority of these...

End-user spending for the worldwide virtual personal assistant (VPA)-enabled wireless speaker market will reach $2.1 billion by 2020, up from $360 million in 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). By 2020, 3.3% of global households are forecast to have adopted a VPA-enabled wireless speaker.

Recently, Apple rolled out its newest operating system updates – iOS 10 and macOS Sierra. The new updates brought about a lot of exciting new features and upgrades. Apple’s mobile and Mac software is now more integrated: for example, Siri assistant has arrived on the computer. Users are also excited about the Universal Clipboard that allows to choose photos from iPhone and directly paste them on a computer.

However, there might be some frustrating news for those who had VPN apps installed on their Mac or iPhone. The latest version of the software doesn’t support point-to-point tunneling protocol (PPTP) connections, meaning that a VPN that is using PPTP protocol will no longer work with devices that have iOS 10 and macOS Sierra.

PPTP (Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol) was one of the first security protocols introduced. However, it is considered very weak nowadays and therefore PPTP isn’t a recommended option anymore. Most likely, this was the reason for...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the value of domestic money transfers, including operator money and social media money services, will reach $520 billion in mobile transactions by 2018, up nearly 200% from an estimated $178 billion last year.

According to the new research by 2018 the share of domestic money transfer services, by mobile transaction values are forecast to be: domestic P2P: 45%; Cash-In: 21%; Cash-Out: 17%; Bulk Disbursement (G2P): 14%; and Domestic Airtime Top-Up: 2%. Typically P2P (person to person) domestic transfers show higher usage in developing markets, including M-Pesa, Airtel Money, Orange Money and MTN Mobile Money, supplemented by users making social transfers in developed markets via services such as Venmo and WeChat.

However, the bulk of activity is currently occurring via WeChat and Alipay within China, with growth...

The Spy described himself last month as "still breathing.” In view of the worst cold to afflict him in many years, that is not a quality statement, just a bare fact. Good thing he isn't trying to dictate this column.

VCON-41 was this past weekend (why he delayed writing this) and the Spy was scheduled for four panels and a reading. After struggling through Friday afternoon and evening, he awoke Saturday with no voice at all, and had to cancel out of two panels plus a reading of his work on Saturday.

Too bad, because Friday night's panel on Minions (that he moderated) had a large and vigorously opinionated audience and provoked extensive discussions back-and-forth with the panel--the ideal outcome for such a venue. Some panelists and audience members were convinced that the very word "minion" is pejorative, so only applies to the flunkies of the Big Bad. The Spy differs--the protagonist may have minions too, not just sidekicks...

Technavio (www.technavio.com) analysts forecast that the global smart wearable lifestyle devices and services market will grow immensely and post a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of almost 16% during the forecast period of 2016-2020

The smart wearable lifestyle services market in North America was valued at $0.84 billion in 2015 and will reach $2.37 billion by 2020, growing at a CAGR of 23.05%, according to the research group. The market is driven by the early adoption of wearable devices in these regions. The key revenue contributors of this region are US, Canada, and Mexico.

The largest contributor to the market in this region is the U.S. because of the early adoption of lifestyle devices among adults and youth. The key reason for this high adoption is affordability. The decline in the average selling price of wearable devices will boost the growth of the market during the forecast period.

Connected car production is growing rapidly in both mature and emerging automobile markets, according to the latest forecast by Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com). The production of new automobiles equipped with data connectivity, either through a built-in communications module or by a tether to a mobile device, is forecast to reach 12.4 million in 2016 and increase to 61 million in 2020, notes the research group.

Gartner defines the connected car as an automobile that is capable of bidirectional wireless communication with an external network for the purpose of delivering digital content and services, transmitting telemetry data from the vehicle, enabling remote monitoring and control, or managing in-vehicle systems.

"The connected vehicle is the foundation for fundamental opportunities and disruptions in the automotive industry and many other vertical industries," said James Hines, research director at...

With the convergence of devices, bots, things and people, organizations will need to master two dimensions of mobility, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) CIOs and IT leaders will need to excel at mainstream mobility and to prepare for the post-app era, adds the research group.

"The future of mobile will provide ubiquitous services delivered anywhere, by any person or thing, to any person or thing," said David Willis vice president and analyst at Gartner. "While users are constantly looking for new and compelling app experiences, the importance of apps in delivering services will diminish and the emergence of virtual personal assistants (VPAs) and bots will replace some of the functions performed by apps today. Alternative approaches to interaction and service delivery will arise, and code will move from traditional mobile devices and apps to the cloud.”

It’s estimated that the global cybersecurity job postings is around one million and more than 200,000 cybersecurity jobs in the U.S. alone were unfilled in 2015 which was up 74% over the previous five years. The cybersecurity market is expected to grow from $75 billion in 2015 to $170 billion by 2020 according to recent industry reports and it is estimated that the global cybersecurity workforce will have 1.5 million jobs unfilled by 2019, according to Identity Management Institute (http://www.identitymanagementinstitute.org).

Cybersecurity is a new buzz name for computer and network security which has existed for many years. However, due to the increasing connectivity of many devices and networks, the computer security risk landscape is expanding and is frequently referred to as cybersecurity.

A new report from Research and Markets (www.researchandmarkets.com) report forecasts that the global peripheral component interconnect express (PCIe) SSD market to grow at a CAGR [compound annual growth rate] of 33.24% during the period 2016-2020.

The report has been prepared based on an in-depth market analysis with inputs from industry experts. The research group says the need for managed service data centers will be a key driver for market growth. It is advantageous for an enterprise to operate a colocation facility rather than to build a data center. Data center colocation allows enterprises to rent computing storage, servers, and network. It enables minimal utilization of power and bandwidth and enhances the security of enterprise IT equipment.

Further, Research and Markets states that the lack of availability of constant low latency is a major challenge. Write latency can be...

Tripwire (www.tripwire.com), a provider of security and compliance solutions for enterprises and industrial organizations, has announced the results of a survey conducted on behalf of Tripwire by Dimensional Research.

The June survey assessed cyber security challenges associated with smart city technologies. Survey respondents included over 200 IT professionals working for state and local governments.

When asked if a cyber attack targeting critical city infrastructure posed a threat to public safety, 83% of the respondents said, “yes.” In addition, 78% percent of the respondents stated there would likely be a cyber attack against smart city services in 2016.

Smart cities use IT solutions to manage a wide range of city services, including smart grids, transportation, surveillance cameras, wastewater treatment and more. Navigant Research anticipates that global smart city technology revenue will...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the global value of contactless POS (point of sale) terminal transactions, conducted in-store via cards, mobile and wearables, will approach $500 billion annually by 2017. This is up from an estimated $321 billion this year.

However, the low value nature of contactless payments means that it will only represent just 5% of the total value of all POS transactions in 2017. According to the new research the surge in contactless-enabled POS terminals in 2015, allied to retailer obligations to card companies in many markets to ensure that all terminals will be contactless ready by 2020, is likely to prompt an upsurge in migration to contactless payment. For example, Visa announced more than 3.2 million contactless terminals in Europe as of April 2016, up 23% from 2.6 million at the end of April 2015.

As the race for self-driving cars accelerates, new data shows that 43% of U.S. consumers would buy or ride in autonomous vehicles (AV) if they were broadly available today, according to the survey released today by Altman Vilandrie & Company (http://www.altvil.com). However, the survey reveals widespread concerns about the safety of self-driving cars: 64% of consumers say they would not buy an AV because they believe AVs are dangerous.

As part of the survey, Altman Vilandrie & Company also interviewed more than 20 industry experts, including those in auto manufacturing, car technology and mobile communications, who on the whole are very bullish on the future of AVs. The survey comes as activity related to autonomous cars has reached an inflection point, with leading carmakers (Audi, GM, Tesla), technology titans (Google, Apple), numerous startups, and ride sharing companies like Uber announcing plans...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that global operator revenue loss from “grey route” A2P traffic will amount to $62 billion over the next 6six years, despite the increased deployment of firewalls and other security measures.

The research argued that in part the high levels of grey route traffic – essentially A2P messages masquerading as P2P (Person to Person) messages and delivered via non-interconnected routes – could be attributed by the scale of the price differential between A2P and P2P. It pointed out that the trend has become more pronounced as operators have offered high-volume, low cost SMS bundles to cope with the challenge of OTT (Over The Top) messaging services, with grey route traffic now accounting for more than 30% of all A2P messages.

According to the research, the typical cost of an A2P message using grey routes was often just 25% of a...

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that revenues from SVOD (subscription video on demand) services, such as Netflix and Amazon, are set to more than double from $14.6 billion this year, to $34.6 billion in 2021. Netflix now sees US subscriber numbers level with leading network providers DirecTV & Comcast (47 million and 47.7 million respectively).

Juniper’s latest research found that SVOD providers can expect to see substantial returns on their expansion and growth strategies, as more countries and markets move to this method of video consumption, in a continual move away from linear, scheduled TV.

Whilst SVOD continues to draw customers away from traditional providers, networks are now seeking to diversify and adapt through “cord shaving,” with services such as YouTube and Hulu seeking to offer some linear cable streaming as part of subscription packages...

The combined consumer and enterprise worldwide wireless local area network (WLAN) market segments increased 6.7% year over year in the second quarter of 2016 (2Q16), and increased 6.7% on a sequential basis.

According to new data from the IDC research group (www.idc.com), the enterprise segment grew 9.4% year over year in 2Q16, representing its strongest growth in over two years. The sustained growth observed so far in 2016 can be attributed to refresh cycles and the funding of digital transformation initiatives in many enterprises.

The 802.11ac standard has achieved market dominance and now accounts for 59.9% of dependent access point unit shipments and 77.4% of dependent access point revenues, representing a noticeably faster adoption rate from 802.11n than what we saw with the 802.11a/b/g to 802.11n transition several years ago.

Meanwhile, consumer WLAN market revenue saw growth for the first time since...

The report is based largely on an online survey 3C commissioned during July, 2016, which was presented to roughly 3,000 brand marketers across a variety of industries. Survey participants represent retail (29%), restaurants (21%), hospitality/tourism/travel (17%), financial services (14%), and a host of other industries as well.

In the second quarter of 2016, worldwide server revenue declined 0.8% year-over-year while shipments grew 2% from the second quarter of 2015, according to Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com).

There was some shuffling among the top vendors in the second quarter, as Dell moved into the top spot in shipments, while Hewlett Packard Enterprise (HPE) remained the worldwide leader in server revenue, notes the research group.

"The second quarter of 2016 produced some continued growth on a global level compared with the first quarter, although there were some varied results regionally," said Jeffrey Hewitt, research vice president at Gartner.

All regions showed a decline in shipments except Asia/Pacific and North America, which posted growth of 5.6% and 3%, respectively. In terms of revenue, all regions except for Asia/Pacific and Eastern Europe exhibited a decline. Asia/Pacific grew by 6.1% and Eastern Europe...

Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has released a report into the business attitudes towards and experiences of cyber security and cyber attacks in SMEs and enterprises. The research revealed that three quarters of companies feel they are currently secure, even though half of those businesses also reported having previously experienced a cyber attack.

Increasingly, businesses are moving critical infrastructure online, making them more vulnerable to digital threats. Yet, the study found that despite increased concern and spend on cyber security over the last year, there is a high degree of complacency, with few common practices in response to this threat. Overall, 86% of respondents believe they are doing enough to mitigate the impact of cyber attacks. Most respondents still think it’s enough to have the IT or security department involved in mitigating the effect of cyber attacks, with 33%...

A new study from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that the total value of Venture Capital (VC) investment into blockchain technologies and Bitcoin companies totaled $290 million in the first six months of the year, with more than 30 startups receiving funding in that time.

More than a third of all investment was accounted for by three companies: Circle, the social payment provider; Blockstream, the sidechain developer; and Digital Asset holdings, a distributed ledger solutions provider. The new research report highlights the increasing diversification of nascent blockchain deployments, with applications ranging from identity to asset management. It pinpoints the banking sector as being particularly proactive, with several banks having already adopted the Ripple blockchain protocol and others piloting competing solutions.

By 2020, 21 billion of Internet of Things (IoT) devices will be in use worldwide. Of these, close to 6% will be in use for industrial IoT applications.

However, IT organizations have issues identifying these devices and characterizing them as part of current network access policy, said Gartner, Inc. (www.gartner.com) Infrastructure and operations (I&O) leaders must therefore update their network access policy to seamlessly address the onslaught of IoT devices, adds the research group.

"Having embraced a bring-your-own-device strategy, organizations must now get employee devices on the enterprise network and start addressing the 21 billion IoT devices that we project will want access to the enterprise network," said Tim Zimmermann, research vice president at Gartner. "Whether a video surveillance camera for a parking lot, a motion detector in a conference room or the HVAC for the entire building, the...

By 2020, 250 million TV viewers around the world will be ready to watch shows using the latest technology known as High Dynamic Range (HDR).

According to a new report from Strategy Analytics’ Intelligent Home Group (www.strategyanalytics.com), annual worldwide sales of HDR-enabled TVs in 2020 will reach 58 million units, bringing the number of homes with at least one HDR-enabled TV to 107 million. Penetration of HDR TVs will reach nearly 25% of homes in the U.S.

High Dynamic Range is one of the most important components of Ultra HD TV, the new standard which is being introduced around the world. It improves TV pictures by increasing the range of colors and brightness. HDR programming has been launched by online video services such as Netflix and Amazon, and is expected to be introduced by leading broadcasters and pay TV companies over the next couple of years.

Ransomware is a malware that infects computers and restricts their access to files, often threatening permanent data destruction unless a ransom is paid. The FBI's Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) confirmed that in 2015, over $24 million was surrendered to attackers in approximately 2500 ransomware cases. This year, there has been a significant increase in phishing campaigns and ransomware attacks targeting various...

Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) has found that machine learning algorithms used to enable more efficient ad bids over RTB (real-time bidding) networks will generate some $42 billion in annual ad spend by 2021, up from an estimated $3.5 billion in 2016.

Machine learning — a subset of AI — has arrived at a point where it is both accessible as well as affordable to a wide range of stakeholders. Juniper anticipates that the technology will eventually permeate into nearly all industries in the next five years.

In the case of the media industry, machine learning is being used to develop so-called “bots” and digital assistants, as well as maximize returns on digital advertising. In the case of the former, companies such as Facebook and Google are leading the drive, with the likes of Rocket Fuel and Datacratic developing innovative solutions for the latter use case.

New data from Juniper Research (www.juniperresearch.com) shows that increased use of digital assistants, such as Siri and Cortana, on smart devices will provide new paid search opportunities in the coming years.

The research group forecasts that over $12 billion of ad spend per annum will be made through this rapidly growing medium by 2021, an increase of over 3,000% on estimated spend for 2016. The study found that, besides integration into devices like smartphones and PCs, assistants will be part of many home and automotive devices in future, creating new spaces for human-computer interaction.

These sectors will initially see the highest usage, paving the way for wider adoption of assistants towards the end of the 2010s, according to Juniper Research.
Improvements in artificial intelligence have led to a proliferation of programs, of which Siri, Google Now and Cortana are the best...

The smart home market continues to expand, with 47 million connected smart home devices shipped globally in 2015, according to IHS Markit (ihs.com). The market is projected to broaden at a compound annual growth rate of 60%, reaching 477 million devices in 2020, adds the research group.

The American region accounted for 62% of global shipments in 2015; however, Asia-Pacific will gain significant share over the next four years, coming into parity with the American market in 2020. The EMEA region will remain flat, holding steady at 20 percent of the global market for smart devices. This rapid growth will be primarily attributed to appliances and air conditioners, according to recent analysis from the IHS Markit Smart Home Intelligence Service.

“The smart home is organized into the following five primary categories: safety and security, climate control, consumer electronics, energy and water control, and lighting and controls,” said Blake Kozak, principal analyst, IHS...

The Spy, like everyone else still breathing, is always learning new things--or re-learning old ones--especially so as a new crowd of students (and many more old ones) is about to descend on campus.

El Capitan falls into both categories, for it has a few extremely annoying bugs that he has not had to deal with for several OS X iterations.

One of the worst is the tendency to forget it has ever heard of Bluetooth. The menu bar icon turns greyer and loses its three dots. Any attempt to do things bluetoothy results in an error message. So, one tries resetting the NVRAM (once called parameter RAM) at startup with the old four finger salute (holding down command-option-P-R keys all at once). No joy.

So he tried something more adventuresome--resetting the SMC (System Management Controller), also done at startup with the keys left shift-control-option, also used to correct errant fans gone wild. Best practice: hold for two...

New findings from Juniper Research claim that the value of digital and physical goods purchased through mobile “OS-Pay” platforms will increase by 15 times in the next two years. A combination of in-app purchases and website retail payments is projected to drive annual spend via Apple Pay and Android Pay to $8 billion in 2018, up from $540 million this year.

The new study found that the integration of OS-Pay into apps will prove to be a “no brainer” for developers looking to reduce buyer friction, where password entry on smartphones remains cumbersome. Staples, for example, has already reported that over 30% of its iOS app users make in-app purchases through Apple Pay. Meanwhile, despite the continued contraction of the consumer tablet market, more than 85% of remote goods payments are forecast to be made using mobile devices in 2021.

“It is clear that even in markets where PCs and laptops have a high installed base that the smartphone is playing an increasingly...

New data from International Data Corporation (IDC) finds that worldwide revenues for information technology products and services will grow from nearly $2.4 trillion in 2016 to more than $2.7 trillion in 2020. This represents a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 3.3% for the 2015-2020 forecast period.

Among the trends in the forecast is the positive momentum displayed in big industries like financial services and manufacturing, where companies continue to invest in third Platform solutions (e.g. cloud, mobility, and big data) as part of their digital transformation efforts, according to IDC (www.idc.com). The telecommunications industry is forecast to remain relatively sluggish, although spending levels are expected to gradually improve compared to the past several years, according to the research group.

According to the latest market study released by Technavio (www.technavio.com), the global digital map market is expected to reach $5.57 billion by 2020, growing at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of nearly 14% during the forecast period.

This research group says, that over the years, the adoption of location-based application-enabled smartphones has gained popularity. Previously, mobile devices were merely used as communication devices. However, with the increasing functionalities and processing capabilities of smartphones and tablets, users are able to use their mobile devices to obtain real-time directions to nearby locations, weather forecasts, and traffic updates.

Since location-based advertising is cost-effective, many mobile advertisers are targeting smartphone users in their product and service marketing. All these location-based service applications and devices are built on digital maps,...

Wireless customers living in urban areas experience the highest number of overall network problems and have lower tolerance of those problems, according to the J.D. Power 2016 U.S. Wireless Network Quality Performance Study—Volume 2. The finding underscores the importance of continued investment by carriers in urban areas as the use of 4G LTE compatible smartphones grows and customers expect faster data speeds.

Airfoil allows you to send any audio to AirPort Express units, Apple TVs, and even other Macs and PCs, all in sync! It's your audio - everywhere.
With Airfoil you can take audio from any... Read more

EtreCheck 4.0.4 - For troubleshooting yo...

EtreCheck is an app that displays the important details of your system configuration and allow you to copy that information to the Clipboard. It is meant to be used with Apple Support Communities to... Read more

WhatsApp 0.2.8361 - Desktop client for W...

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iClock 4.2 - Customize your menubar cloc...

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Things 3.4 - Elegant personal task manag...

Things is a task management solution that helps to organize your tasks in an elegant and intuitive way. Things combines powerful features with simplicity through the use of tags and its intelligent... Read more

Dashlane 5.7.0 - Password manager and se...

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HoudahSpot 4.3.5 - Advanced file-search...

HoudahSpot is a versatile desktop search tool. Use HoudahSpot to locate hard-to-find files and keep frequently used files within reach.
HoudahSpot will immediately feel familiar. It works just the... Read more

Parallels Desktop 13.3.0 - Run Windows a...

Parallels allows you to run Windows and Mac applications side by side. Choose your view to make Windows invisible while still using its applications, or keep the familiar Windows background and... Read more

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Alto's Odyssey is a really, really good game. If you don't believe me, you should definitely check out our review by clicking this link right here. It takes the ideas from the original Alto's Adventure, then subtly builds on them, creating... | Read more »

Alto's Odyssey (Games)

Alto's Odyssey 1.0.1
Device: iOS Universal
Category: Games
Price: $4.99, Version: 1.0.1 (iTunes)
Description:
Just beyond the horizon sits a majestic desert, vast and unexplored.
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Our top 5 characters from casual RPG Cre...

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Around the Empire: What have you missed...

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All the best games on sale for iPhone an...

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The Battle of Polytopia Guide - How to H...

A new update just released for The Battle of Polytopia (formerly Super Tribes), which introduces online multiplayer. For all the fans of Midjiwan’s lite take on Civilization, this is certainly welcome news, but playing online isn’t as easy and... | Read more »

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Apple has restocked a full line of Apple Certified Refurbished 2017 13″ MacBook Pros for $200-$300 off MSRP. A standard Apple one-year warranty is included with each MacBook, and shipping is free.... Read more

Lowest sale price available for 13″ 1.8GHz Ma...

Focus Camera has the 2017 13″ 1.8GHz/128GB Apple MacBook Air on sale today for $829 including free shipping. Their price is $170 off MSRP, and it’s the lowest price available for a current 13″... Read more

21-inch 2.3GHz iMac on sale for $999, $100 of...

B&H Photo has the 2017 21″ 2.3GHz iMac (MMQA2LL/A) in stock and on sale for $999 including free shipping plus NY & NJ tax only. Their price is $100 off MSRP.
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Apple has a full line of Certified Refurbished iMacs available for up to $350 off original MSRP. Apple’s one-year warranty is standard, and shipping is free. The following models are available:
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